Out
for a gig the night before Shiiine On; I must be barking mad! Still, it's a
local one, just up the Tuppenny, and promises to be relatively sedate too...
Raze*Rebuild offering an acoustic set in the Tup's compact and cozy settings,
so one I can leave my kneestraps at home for, for once with this band!
A slightly late departure from home, as Rach was at a governor's meeting, so I parked up behind the Roaring Donkey and made my way in for 8.45, as support Leon Daye was working through his early numbers. Quite an appropriate support selection, this guy, as his material was generally quite upbeat; "Beautiful Day" was his best number, a jolly Britpop walk along a sunny Summer riverbank, and a couple of others were even slightly emo-ish, albeit with a more yearning, high-pitched vocal rather than an inarticulate howl. A couple of folkier, more introspective numbers finished a decent opening set.
Chatted
with promoter Ed and other passing folks (hi Liam!) before taking a seat near
the front with the other R*R ever-present, Mr. Paul Carter, for Raze's set at
9.30. Si (whom I'd seen earlier sitting with his old folks, then commented to a
passing Matt that he, Matt, looked the image of his old man, only to be told
that was his step-dad!) introduced the band on with, "we're Raze*Rebuild
from...here!" which promoted some audience discussion as to whether the
band were actually from the Tuppenny ("Paj is here so often he's on the
contents insurance!")... Opener "Face For Radio" then featured
some nice electric reverb from Matt (acoustic, shmacoustic...!) and some understated
vocals from Si. I think he'd left the stentorian howl at home along with my
kneestraps!
This
was a relaxed and chilled performance - a couple of words you wouldn't normally
associate with Raze*Rebuild, I know - and again was slightly different to their
Shuffle gig, when drummer Jamie just used a beatbox for percussion. With a drum
kit, - albeit a skeleton kit of hi-hat, snare and bass alone - their usual
gravelly, growling blue-collar alt-rock all got a little bit alt-country, as if
they were channelling their inner Wilco or Cake, even... A couple of muffed
lines and notes (Si commenting, "you get what you don't pay for,"
then later remarking he'd been put off by thinking whether his cat was going to
dig his plant up - phew, rock and roll!), which would doubtless been bludgeoned
over by the full-on electric band line-up, were nonetheless largely ignored by
the audience, and slowies "You're The Chalk" and "Kat I'm
Sorry" (which saw Si cut a bit loose with the roaring vocal) unsurprisingly
benefited best from this arrangement. Even "Burden Of Youth", which
Si had admitted he was concerned for, actually worked well, galloping along at
an insistent, countrified pace.
Us
front row punters then got a bit confused when, contrary to the set-list
running order, Si skipped “Back To The Fall” and introduced "Sand In The
Petrol" as the last number, but then went back to "Fall" as an
encore (the band not bothering to leave the small stage, Si quipping,
"there's nowhere to go [offstage] to, just round in circles... metaphor
for my life really..."), this ending a somewhat different Raze*Rebuild
set, offering a different flavour to their work.
I grabbed the list - my 800th! - before curtailing my socialising in favour of a (relatively) early one. A big weekend planned, but glad I made it out to check out a surprising alt-country side to Raze*Rebuild!
No comments:
Post a Comment